Traditionally, users who wanted to bypass geo restrictions or access any blocked content with the help of proxies had to modify settings in the web browser or operating system as a whole. However, now we have more user-friendly tailored options that are easier to customize without affecting the settings of the entire system or other browsers.
The benefits of proxy rotation
Proxy servers as such enhance online user anonymity and security, but IP rotation brings these benefits to a new level. Generally, you can go with static proxies if you just want to hide your location or access geo restricted websites. But if you are involved in somewhat more serious online endeavors like data scraping for marketing research or managing social network accounts, then IP rotation is a must if you want to succeed.
Key benefits of proxy rotation:
- Ultimate privacy. With IP addresses changed steadily, you maximize protection and security. It will be extremely hard to identify your original IP.
- Resolving blocks and CAPTCHAs. With rotating proxies, you minimize the risk of being banned for suspicious activities on the website you need.
- Scalability due to provider’s IP pool. The greater the IP pool maintained by your provider, the better are your opportunities to scale the pursued tasks by spreading your requests across millions of IPs.
Proxy types and IP rotation
Proxy servers are categorized into three types by their origin: datacenter, residential, and mobile proxies. Each of these categories can be both static and rotating.
Classification of rotating proxies
| Datacenter rotating proxy | IP addresses generated by data centers | Since they are affordable, fast and relatively reliable, they are demanded for marketing research, online surfing and additional level of safety. | Best for tasks that require many IPs without focusing on location accuracy, such as some marketing tasks, cybersecurity and leisure. |
| Residential rotating proxy | IPs from real devices connected to the Internet | Though slower than datacenter proxies, they feature higher geolocation accuracy. | Best for geolocation related tasks, including ad verification, price monitoring, web scraping or multiple account management. |
| Mobile rotating proxy | IPs from cellular- network connected mobile devices | They are more expensive vs. other proxy offerings, but you can minimize the risk of being detected even by the state-of-the-art anti-bot measures. | Best for the tasks of testing applications, supporting diverse automation tools, running advertising campaigns and managing multiple accounts in social networks or e-commerce portals. |
Three ways to rotate your proxy IPs
Depending on the tasks you pursue, your coding skills, and the scale of the project, you can choose one of the three kinds of solutions the current market offers.
Browser Extensions
The easiest way for users who don’t have coding skills to do so is to install a Google Chrome extension with proxy rotation functionality. There’s a decent choice of add-ons to suit your taste:
- BP Proxy Switcher automatically changes proxies and supports loading the list of proxies from a .txt file with the set frequency;
- Smartproxy Extension is compatible with any proxy provider and supports rotating connection for specific types of proxies;
- SmartProxy switches between multiple proxy servers and proxy modes and allows to specify the refresh rate of the server list you subscribe to;
- FoxyProxy supports auto switching between proxies based on URL rules and event handling;
- Random Proxy Switcher is an elementary tool that randomly switches between up to four proxy servers every minute;
- Proxy Rotate Chrome Extension is a ready-to-use add-on that automatically rotates proxies and reloads the tab on proxy switch.
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Rotation control by the provider
Another user-friendly approach to proxy rotation is the dedicated proxy rotation enabled by the proxy provider. To a greater extent, its quality depends on how large the provider’s IP pool is and what additional features the provider’s solution offers.
Advantages of the provider’s proxy rotation solution
With the provider’s solution, a user can access different IP addresses from a variety of geolocations and network operators and rely on the specified rotation algorithm. Many solutions support smart rotation algorithms that are able to choose the best rotation techniques depending on the users’ networking and online behavior. This also enables a tailored rotation strategy, when users customize different rotation parameters, such as IP range and rotation frequency. Another advantage offered by providers’ dedicated solutions is the ease of use due to the intuitive interface that even less advanced users can handle.
Disadvantages of the provider’s proxy rotation solution
Since any proxy provider is interested in gaining a competitive edge, proxy solutions offered by providers are not usually compatible with the IP pools of their competitors. It means that once you’ve chosen the proprietary solution, you are likely to be restricted by the IP pool of this provider. The second drawback is that such solutions rarely support highly advanced options, such as your own scripts.
Other software to rotate proxies
Independent third-party software that supports proxy rotation is rather rare to find, basically because these solutions are commonly offered by proxy providers.
Still, Proxifier has the proxy chains mode, when a remote host is connected to a sequence of proxy servers. This mode helps access hosts when multiple proxies are required to ensure anonymity or by-pass different protection measures.
However, you can find some apps on GitHub or have a customizable app written for you. Such software is often based on Python or JavaScript. For example, requests-IP-rotator released by one of GitHub users, is a Python library that employs a large IP pool of AWS API Gateway as a proxy to create pseudo-infinite IPs for web scraping.
Another class of software that usually enables proxy rotation is anti-detect web browsers:
- MuLogin ensures enhanced privacy through integration with proxies and IP rotation;
- Kameleo, designed for emulation of mobile browsers both on mobile devices and desktops, also offers proxy rotation and IP anonymization;
- AdsPower helps users route traffic via different geolocations, the feature most demanded for IP rotation or multiple profile management.
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Conclusion
Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers in the world, so it is no surprise that it offers add-ons of all kinds. Today, users no longer need to customize settings inside the Chrome to get privacy and security offered by proxy rotation. Instead, they can choose from a range of solutions tailored to a variety of needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read our Documentation if you have questions that are not listed below.
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What is the easiest way to turn on proxy rotation in Google Chrome?
The easiest way that suits most users without coding skills is to install a Chrome extension that supports proxy rotation
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Are anti-detect browsers free of charge?
Mostly not. These are complicated software products that help companies solve many business tasks. So they usually go at a reasonable price for all the offered functions.
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Do I have to be extremely good at coding to use Python-based proxy rotators?
Not necessarily. You can choose ready-to-use apps or fragments of Python code to adapt it to your proxy tasks
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